


Only A Scratch

by thisandthat



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Wolverine (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Fix-It, Marvel Universe, Wolverine - Freeform, Wolverine: Old Man Logan
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-27
Updated: 2018-01-26
Packaged: 2018-11-05 16:30:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11017197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thisandthat/pseuds/thisandthat
Summary: Thank you for the kudos. I'm glad you like it :).





	1. Chapter 1

First I was standing on the playground with Laura and the next thing I knew was a sharp pain shooting up my arm. I looked at Laura. She was gaping at me with big eyes. The claws of her right hand were extracted. Blood was dripping from my right hand. Before I knew it Laura had turned around and was running away. “Laura, wait!” I was starting to run after her when the pain flared up. “Damn it.” I pressed my hand on the wound. It was then that I realised the commotion on the playground. Parents were leaving with their children in a hurry, others were speaking frantically on the phone, a man asked me if I was alright and told me he had called an ambulance.


	2. Chapter 2

The paramedics hurried me into the ambulance to check my wound. The wound was the least of my problems, though. Laura was gone. What if she got hurt? Was she safe? God, James would kill me. At the first chance that I got I called Caliban, not James. No, I simply could not tell him that I lost his daughter. He was at work anyway, or so I thought. 

At the hospital I had to ditch more questions how this had happened but then I heard a nurse telling the doctor what an eyewitness told the emergency people. I was worried the police would arrive soon to question me some more. And worse, possibly hunting down Laura. When I was getting stitched up (apparently the wound was deeper than I initially thought), I heard some commotion outside the room I was in and faint noises that seemed to be arguing. Then I heard his gruff voice “threatening” a nurse to let him see me. A few seconds later, the door flew open and a very irritated James stood in the door. 

I clearly flinched. The young doctor who was stitching me up had stopped and was now staring at James, too. After a few seconds, he slowly found his composure again. Bless him. “Sir, you can‘t just bark in here.” Yeah, maybe he should not have said that. “The hell, I can‘t!”, James grumbled. When his eyes fell on me his gaze softened and he started limbing towards me. Out of sudden a hand caught his upper arm. A nurse must have called security, the two men were now asking James to leave. I saw James‘s other hand ball into a fist as he slowly turned around to the security guard who held him by his upper arm. I immediately intervened, “No no, it‘s fine. It‘s fine.” I stretched my arm towards James. “Maybe... maybe it would be better, though, if you waited outside.” “There we go, sir.” The security guard looked smug. “I meant you, gentlemen.” The men left grumbling. “Ok, now that we made this clear, can I...?” The doctor motioned with the needle and thread in his hands. “Sure.” I looked down avoiding James‘ gaze. I felt him standing next to me. “She is at home with Charles.”, I heard James whisper. My head whipped around to stare at him. He nodded. I felt hot tears rolling down my cheeks.


	3. Chapter 3

James and I left the hospital quickly. Thankfully, the police did not show up. We were sitting in his car in silence. My mind was racing a million times an hour. Laura was safe that was the most important thing. Still, I could not stop worrying about James stopping me from seeing her. Maybe it was better that way. Maybe it was too much. From the corner of my eye I saw James looking at me. I looked down. James coughed and was about to start the engine. “Maybe...”, I started, “Maybe it‘s better if I...” “If you what?” I could not place his tone of voice. Frustrated? Scared? Definitely tired. “Listen...”, James started more softly. This was when his phone alerted him of a text message. As he was fumbling to get his phone out I was looking out of the passenger window. “Laura wants to see you.” My head whipped around. I could not believe she wanted to see me. The drive to his house was relatively quiet. He saw me picking at my gauze. “Does it hurt?” “It‘s fine.” “You wanna try that again?” I gave him a look. “It does hurt a bit now that the local anaesthesia is wearing off.” James focused back on the street “I‘m sorry.” I stayed quiet. What was there to say? That it was not his fault? That yes, even though I was fond of Laura and I knew it was an accident that her slicing my arm had scared me?

As I entered the living room Laura was curled into a tight ball next to Charles on the couch. It was obvious that she had been crying. I was scared to approach her. She was still very skittish sometimes and under these circumstances... Charles looked at my gauze. “Are you alright?” “Yes, I‘m fine.”, I smiled at him. I could tell he did not believe me but that was not my priority right now. I kneeled down on the floor to be on the same height with Laura. “Pumpkin? Are you ok?” She looked hesitantly at me and nodded slightly. “It was only an accident.” I knew Charles probably already talked to her but I wanted her to hear it from me. “I‘m ok, it was only a scratch.” I reached my hand out to her but she flinched back into the couch. I gave Charles a questioning look. “She is scared to hurt you.” That is why she had her hands tugged underneath her. “Oh honey...”. I looked up to James pleadingly. So far he had been standing behind me in silence. I could see the pain in his eyes, but he was the one who would understand Laura the most. I got up and squeezed his arm. “I‘ll have a look if Caliban needs help with dinner.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the kudos. I'm glad you like it :).

I had taken Caliban into my heart and we had become good friends. I loved his sarcasm. Today, however, were were working silently side by side in the kitchen. “He was really worried.”, Caliban said in his soft voice. “I know. Thank God, she‘s alright.” “He was worried about you too.” I did not react. Please not this again. Since I got into their lives, Charles and Caliban played matchmaker. Initially, I found it funny, I thought they were only joking. However, they quickly moved away from slight teasing to excusing themselves from the room so James and I would be alone, probably thinking that it was not obvious what they were doing. I even once caught Caliban preparing a candle light dinner for me and James but I could stop him in time.

“You were thinking about leaving, weren‘t you?”, he interrupted my thoughts. “Caliban, I know you mean well but I can‘t talk about this right now”. We kept chopping vegetables in silence. “You are scared.”, he pressed on. “I can smell it.” I sighed loudly. “Can you blame her?” Charles asked entering the kitchen. “She‘d never seen James‘, should I say, gift.” Thankfully I have never needed to. I knew he had claws, I saw them in pictures. I read about what he could be capable of. “You don‘t need to be afraid. James would never hurt you.” He put his hand next to my wound. “Thank you, Charles.”, I smiled at him. “I don‘t need to read his mind to know that he loves you.”, he added. It was the last straw. I slammed the knife and pepper on the table. “Stop it! The both of you! James doesn‘t love me, ok? Not in that way anyway.” Charles and Caliban looked at me after my little outburst. “Why would you say that?” “Because... because I‘m not Jean!”


	5. Flowery Surprise

After my little outburst in the kitchen, I apologised that it was just too much and I left relatively quickly. Was it wrong? Yes. Was it cowardly? Yes. Was it fair towards Laura? No. But after everything that happened that day I needed space. I thought Laura needed space, too, if she was scared to hurt me as Charles had claimed. Plus, I kind of confessed that I liked James, didn’t I? I was scared how he would react to my confession. Sure, he must have heard what I said, superhearing and all that. In short, I made a total idiot of myself and hurt people that were dear to me.

That is why the next few days I threw myself into work to get my mind off of things. It worked but only for a short while. No matter what I did my mind would eventually drift back to James and Laura. Why did Charles have to say that James loved me? He didn’t. But then again Charles could read minds so why should he be wrong? I mulled that thought over and over. James liking, no, loving me? Nah, I really couldn’t imagine that. 

As to Laura, she was a cute munchkin, no question. But she had gone through so much. Traumatised beyond what I could imagine. Even though it seemed she slowly came to rest I couldn’t stop thinking that she still was a ticking time-bomb sometimes. Who could blame her after what she had gone through. But how was I supposed to deal with her trauma? I know Charles was helping her and he had years and years of experience in mentoring mutants but was his knowledge enough in this case?

My thoughts were interrupted when my colleague put a huge bunch of flowers next to me on the table. The flowers were absolutely lovely, different hues of pink and white/cream. I loved them but who would send me flowers?

"This has just been delivered for you. AND there’s a card." My colleague tapped the small piece of paper with her finger. She obviously expected me to read it right now. I fished the card from the flowers with shaky fingers and opened it. 

It would be lovely to see you again very soon. 

It was signed by James, Charles and Caliban. Even Laura had put her name on it. Her writing looked still a bit shaky, Charles was teaching her to read and write properly. When I flipped the card over I noticed that something else was written on the back of the card. It looked like it was put there as an afterthought, or without the others knowing.

We miss you. He misses you. Please come home!

I let my finger wander over that one word. Home.

"Looks like someone has a secret admirer", my colleague said teasingly. 

I blinked my eyes several times so the tears wouldn’t fall. "Seems as if I do."


End file.
